Sunday, January 12, 2014

I
received a lot of questions over the past few weeks on a wide range of usage
and grammar issues. See below my responses to a few of those questions. Is it “yam
porridge” or “yam pottage”? Is it true that what Nigerians call “fried egg”
isn’t called fried egg in America and Britain? How about “tea”? Is the word
used wrongly in Nigeria? In this Q and A series I answer these and many more
questions. Enjoy.

Question:

What
do you call it: yam pottage or yam porridge?

Answer:

Well,
first, both expressions--that is, the co-occurrence of “yam” and “pottage” or
“porridge”-- are uniquely Nigerian—and perhaps Ghanaian and Sierra
Leonean—English coinages. Having said that, it’s worth pointing out that "porridge,"
as a standalone term, is a Briticism, that is, it’s an expression that is
limited to British English. A dictionary defines porridge as “soft food made by
boiling oatmeal or other meal or legumes in water or milk until thick.” Other
varieties of English, including American English, know the word as “pottage”
(sometimes spelled “potage.”)I suspect
that “porridge” is the British phonetic corruption of the original “pottage.”

Chicken pottage

The
Random House Dictionary says
“pottage,” which has existed in the language since Middle English, that is,
from about 1175 to 1225, originally meant “somethinginorfroma pot.” But
pottage now generally means “a stew of vegetables and (sometimes) meat.” It can
also mean any thick soup.

Porridge with milk

It’s obvious that native English speakers’
understanding of porridge or pottage is markedly different from ours in
Nigerian English. In Nigerian English, porridge/pottage—or yam porridge/pottage—is
mashed yam with vegetables, tomatoes, and sometimes meat or fish. Unlike in
native-speaker English, Nigerian pottage or porridge is not a soup; it’s a main
meal.

Nigerian yam porridge/pottage

So, since the Nigerian usages of these terms
are mere linguistic appropriations, I would say “yam porridge” and “yam pottage”
are both acceptable in Nigerian English. Note, though, that these terms would
be incomprehensible to native English speakers.

Question:

Is
it true that what Americans call scrambled egg, Nigerians call fried egg?
Nigerians do not eat a real fried egg? Do you know something about it?

Answer:

Yes,
in all the years I lived in Nigeria I never saw “real” fried eggs. Well, I
thought I did until I came to the United States and discovered that what we call
“fried eggs” in Nigeria is called “scrambled eggs” in America—and Britain. Most
Nigerians would call fried eggs “half-fried eggs” since the yolk (the yellow
part of the egg) isn’t usually fully fried in traditional American and British
fried eggs. In Nigerian fried eggs, the yolk and the whites are often
thoroughly mixed and stirred while being cooked in the pan. That’s how scrambled
eggs are made in America and Britain—and elsewhere.

This is how fried egg looks in America and Britain

Scrambled egg

However,
it can get a little more complicated. The mai
shai (roadside tea or hot chocolate and sliced break sellers) cook their
eggs in ways you would neither call “fried” nor “scrambled” (in the
native-English-speaker senses of these terms). The whites and the yolk are
mixed and stirred like scrambled eggs, but they are often overcooked, giving
the scrambled eggs a burnt look. Maybe we should call this “burnt egg” or,
better still, “burnt scrambled eggs.”

Nigerian "fried egg" and plantain

Question:

I
recently traveled outside Nigeria and was surprised to discover that most of us
actually don’t drink tea in Nigeria. We call everything we drink in the morning
“tea” even if it’s not.

Answer:

You’re
right that “tea” has become the generic term for all kinds of beverages in
Nigeria. Most Nigerians mix “Milo,” powdered milk, sugar and water, and call it
“tea.” Native English speakers would call that “hot chocolate” or “hot cocoa,”
not tea. Tea is made by seeping tea leaves, such as Lipton tea, in water. When
my daughter and I visited Nigeria in 2012, she made the same observation.
“Daddy, why do Nigerians call hot cocoa ‘tea’?” she asked me.

Nigerians call this "tea"; other people call it hot chocolate or hot cocoa

Question:

Is
the word “livestock” always followed by “is/was” or “are/were”? In other words,
which of these sentences is correct: “livestock is an important part of
agriculture” and “livestock are an important part of agriculture?”

Answer:

The
short answer to your question is: both are correct. But the long answer is: it
depends. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary
says it is perfectly permissible to use either a singular verb (that is, “is” or
“was”) or a plural verb (that is, “are” or “were”) for livestock. These are the
examples it gave of the word’s usage to underscore this point: “a market where
livestock ARE bought and sold” and “a market where livestock IS bought and sold.”

I
found evidence for both singular and plural verbs in the British National Corpus,
although the singular verb, that is, “livestock is,” is clearly more commonly
used in contemporary English than “livestock are.”Harrap’s Essential English Dictionary, for example, defines
livestock thus: “livestock IS animals kept on a farm, especially horses, cattle,
sheep and pigs" (p.557).

Examples
of current usage in native-speaker English press also tend to support the use
of the singular verb. RTE News, an Irish news site, wrote the following
sentence in an April 20, 2001 story titled “More suspected FMD cases
confirmed in North”:
“The Minister has also announced that a modest relaxation on the movement of
farm animals in the North from byres to pasture although for the time being
livestock IS still prevented from crossing public roads and lane ways.”

Question:

When
is it correct to use “none is” and “none are”? I am sure I’ve heard native
speakers use both constructions. Please help.

Answer:

Incidentally,
a native English speaker asked me this question on Facebook a couple of days
ago. It’s true that native English speakers use both forms, but all the
prestigious style guides favor “none is.” For instance, the Associated Press
Stylebook, the bible of American journalism, has this to say on the use of
“none”:“It usually means no single one.
When used in this sense, it always takes singular verbs and pronouns: None of the seats was in its right place.
Use a plural verb only if the sense is no two or no amount….”

Question:

What
is wrong with the expression “letterheaded paper”?

Answer:

The
proper expression is “letterhead.” "Letterheaded paper" is a distinctly Nigerian
English phraseology. There is no word like “letterheaded” in Standard English. Say “print it on your
company’s letterhead” instead of “print it on your company’s letterheaded
paper.”

Question:

In
what instances can I use “a lot” and “many”?

Answer:

A
lot and many can be used interchangeably. However, a lot can be used both for
countable nouns and uncountable nouns; many can only be used for countable
nouns.

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About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award.

He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student.

Dr. Kperogi worked as a reporter and news editor, as a researcher/speech writer at the (Nigerian) President's office, and as a journalism lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic and Ahmadu Bello University before relocating to the United States.

He was the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History, a refereed academic journal. He was also Associate Director of Research at Georgia State University's Center for International Media Education (CIME).

He is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw State University, Georgia's fastest-growing and third largest university. (Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta). For more than 13 years, he wrote two weekly newspaper columns: "Notes From Atlanta" in the Abuja-based DailyTrust on Saturday (formerly Weekly Trust) and "Politics of Grammar" in the DailyTrust on Sunday (formerly Sunday Trust). From November 2018, his political commentaries appear on the back page of the Nigerian Tribune on Saturday.In April 2014, Dr. Kperogi was honored as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana's Department of Communication. His research has also won international awards, such as the 2016 Top-Rated Research Paper Award at the 17th Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.